I came across these Kodak retouching colors at a thrift store, my immediate thought was how can I use these in a way that the maker never intended. What I came up with was to print a negative image in gray-scale onto transparency film with an inkjet printer and then to apply the retouching colors in the negative. I then scanned the image as if it was a large negative with my Epson V700 scanner. And this is my first result which I have to admit the outcome of which I could not have predicted exactly. I am very pleased and look forward to seeing where I go from here.
I chose a dark image with a limited palette to start. The benefit of this is of course that as a negative the dark areas are pretty much clear. I could have gone with a positive image but that doesn’t seem as difficult or as much fun.
With this sketch it’s apparent how I have used a photograph as the source. While every stroke is unique and not directly derived from the photograph I had the source image as an underlying layer while painting. This image could have been improved if I had painted some more dark greens at the base of the half barrel. As it is the barrel is not grounded and appears to float on the image plane losing the three dimensional effect, appearing flat and giving away it’s photographic origins.
Not only can you use the iPad to sketch but you can use it to capture your source material too with it’s built in camera or through the camera connection kit. All of this was done far away from any Internet connection or source of AC power. I charged the iPad off of a 12V inverter whenever I needed to.
A quick sketch I did, I took pictures every minute or so and then put them together as a video. Just a fun exercise as I haven’t used pastels for some time.
I walked past this door as the long shadows of morning stretched across it. I took a quick shot with my cell phone camera for reference with the thought of doing a sketch and possibly a print later. So here is the sketch done in charcoal on toned paper.
